German Commercial Register
A German Commercial Register (
Each German Commercial Register contains two branches. Branch A deals with partnerships, sole traders and registered associations (Vereine) without share capital. Branch B contains all incorporated companies with share capital. Applications (for new entries, changes and liquidations) must be made in notarized form in the presence of a
Operations
Amongst other things a Commercial Register contains information on:
- legal name of a company
- registered office
- people representing the managing director, board of directors, holders of proxy)
- subscribed capital if any.
The functions of the Commercial Register with respect to the information submitted are publication, examination, control and safekeeping. The content may be taken as accurate by any party referring to the register.
The entries to the Commercial Register are made by a judge or an authorised employee (Rechtspfleger, lit. "law caretaker"). As of 2007 all submissions to the Register have to be made electronically. Companies in the Register are given a unique Handelsregisternummer by their local district court (Amtsgericht).
Anybody may request an extract from the Commercial Register about a specific
Until 2005 legal entities were mostly obliged to publish their Annual Reports by sending it to the Commercial Register. Starting with fiscal year 2006 this obligation has been transferred to the Bundesanzeiger, the (electronic) Federal gazette of the German government. Electronic submission is also mandatory here. Entries to the Commercial Register are also sent to the Bundesanzeiger and published by them. Newspapers sometimes also publish new entries, although since 2009, entries to newspapers are no longer mandatory.[citation needed]
See also
- Companies Registration Office (disambiguation)
- Companies House, the comparable office for England and Wales
- Secretary of State (U.S. state), the comparable offices in states of the United States of America
- List of company registers
References
External links
- Handelsregister.de Official Information Portal of the German Commercial Register (Multi-Language)
- Bundesanzeiger.de Official Information Portal of the German Bundesanzeiger (German language)